Development of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Paramagnetic Metal Ion Dopants for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Applications

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are extensively studied due to their interesting magnetic properties which labels them as good candidates for contrast agents used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). IONPs can be used as a diagnostic tool when applying an external magnetic field which causes an alignment in their magnetic moments. MRI is a non-invasive, non-ionizing, radiation-free technique and diagnostic tool that uses radio waves and an applied magnetic field to create a scan of tissue and organs within the body so one can visually assess them. These IONPs are used as contrast agents that enhance the visual qualities of the scan to provide better spatial resolution. MRI contrast agents are classified as T₁ and T₂, where several inorganic nanoparticles are used as T₂ MRI contrast agents owing to their superparamagnetic properties. The magnetic moment of the IONPs can be increased by adding dopants such as paramagnetic metal ions. Because of this, doped IONPs are the focus of this project, where we studied their relaxivity, particle size, morphology, and elemental composition. The doped IONPs were characterized using Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Raman spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy – Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). The obtained results have suggested that these doped nanosystems can be used as prospective T₂contrast agents for better imaging in cancer detection, when compared to non-doped IONPs, which was concluded after obtaining higher relaxation rates when determining its relaxation curves.